Beside You
by Yusagi
Summary: AU Sophie Hatter was happy with her fate, really she was. Too bad fate wasn't happy with her. But even in the midst of tragedy, True Love can still bloom. BookWitch, MovieBook universe blend, SophiexPrinceJustin. Rating may change.


Disclaimer: Oh that I could own HMC...I'd do such fun things with it. Sadly I don't.

AN: Alright, I thought of this one night while brainstorming for ideas, and honed it while reading the book the next day. This will be a blend of the book and movie universe, so it helps to know them both.

I really do prefer H/S, and will likely write fanfiction about them, but as for the moment, I feel the absence of good J/S fics is a true tragedy--so I must do what I can to aid my writing community!

As such, this may turn into a lemon at times--but don't worry, if it does, all chapters posted on will be censored. ;)

This is an A/U fic, clearly, where a few events that conspired to Sophie meeting Howl didn't happen--or haven't yet anyway. I don't want to make it an angsty triangle, because I like both couples too much...but Howl still might pop up later because he's so awesome.

;) This could be long or fairly short. Depends where I veer.

Nah, I won't pretend this is cannon and use the chapter style the book has (meaning 'in which...' prefix to each title)...even though I do divulge into a book-ish opening. XD As it's AU, I can't say how many spoilers there will be, but I assume much of the movie and book will be spoiled throughout the book.

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_Beside You_

**Chapter 1: _An unlucky encounter_**

In the land of Ingary, far from our shores and time, things like cars and electricity are unheard of--infact, most of the inhabitants of its small towns would be terrified at the idea of giant hunks of metal roaring recklessly down streets at obscene speeds. Rather, these people preferred to travel on foot, on horse, or by boat.

That is not to say they could not travel quickly, or were deprived. Rather, they could get along far better than we can, as in the land of Ingary, things like magic and wizards were commmonplace. If one needed to go long distances quickly, one needed only travel to the nearest sorcerer and buy a pair of Seven-league boots...although it did take a bit to get used to their effects, and not end up far beyond where you were aiming.

Of course, in the little town of Market Chipping, few people worried about travelling--for what did they need that their town did not supply, or the merchants provide? As such, this town had little to do with magic and wizards apart from the one or two that lived near their town, and that was the way they preferred it...for along with magicians came all sorts of unsavory curses, which the townsfolk would greatly prefer to have nothing to do with.

As it was, the townsfolk had their own share of superstitions and customs to deal with. One in particular seemed most destructive when it reared its persistant head. You see...in Market Chipping, it was a terrible thing to be born the eldest of three, for it was believed you were doomed to failure.

This particular curse was what had haunted the eldest daughter of a well-to-do merchant family most of her life. Being the eldest, it fell to her to inherit the family hat-shop, but being the eldest of three meant that her business was bound to fail...if only because no one wanted to buy hats made by the eldest child of three.

However, it seemed to this girl, who was fortunate enough to have a such pleasantly simple name as Sophie Hatter, that the lack of sales in her shop was the least of the effects of her cursed birth. After all, when it is widely known that anything you try will fail, you quickly become the easiest way for single-born children to promote themselves.

As such, most any time she had contact with other people, she was rewarded with varying glances of pity, aversion, or revulsion. Tittering laughter often followed her through streets whenever she was noticed, and many of the more obnoxious townsfolk would take time out of their day to hunt her down and taunt her with mock-concern for her welfare as the eldest of three. In the end, Sophie decided it was better simply not to be noticed, and quickly learned the art of sinking inconspicouously into a crowd, hunching her shoulders in a gray shawl, and shuffling quickly to where ever she was headed.

Aside from her inclination to remain unnoticed, Sophie did not let the constant atmosphere of failure perturb her, she simply devoted long hours to maintaining her tiny shop--preferring to stay in the back workshop and let her mother sell the hats. She was content and even happy about her fate in life, for it meant her sisters would both find their own fortune--her first sister, Lettie, would marry money, and her youngest sister, Martha, would grow to become greatly successful on her own.

This would have been expected anyway, as Lettie was breathtakingly beautiful, and had flocks of suitors swarming her every day, and Martha was a clever girl apprenticed to the lone witch near Market Chipping. Sophie was proud of her sisters, and knew that her father would have been as well, had he not taken ill the year before.

Sophie herself had none of the characteristics of her sisters, and that fit her. She was plain and unremarkable, her reddish gold hair fell to the middle of her back, and was braided modestly. Her chocolate brown eyes were not particularly interesting, and she tended to wear worn gray dresses to help her meld with the crowd. She did not fancy herself as unintelligent, but still she did not have the innate cleverness her younger sister held. All she was truly skilled at was stitching, and judging what hats were best for each person. So, it was truly her fate to work as a hat-maker for the rest of her life.

And she was content to be one. Really, she was.

As the hat-shop plodded leisurely along, never making enough for luxuries, but never so little as to threaten closing it, the thoughts of failure began to quickly fade from the eldest daughters mind, as she continued to dutifully make all different types of hats. However, on an ordinary looking May Day evening, fate was about to bring violently to memory her almost forgotten curse.

And here, is where our story starts, as the eldest daughter, Sophie Hatter, is trying to make her way through the waning crowds of the May Day festival to visit the bakery her sister worked at before evening. The hat-shop had closed already, but her mother had stayed behind to tidy some things, and told Sophie to go on ahead.

Sophie had happily obliged, for she had wanted to see her sister all week, but could not find the time to do so between running errands and creating enough hats to keep up with the demands. However, as she struggled and jostled uncomfortably through the crowd, eyes watching closely where she was stepping, she could not shake the uneasy gnawing in her stomach.

Perhaps it had been the tenseness in her eyes as she told Sophie to go on ahead, or the way she had simply insisted with almost false cheer, that they close down early the hat-shop today to 'go out and celebrate for once', but with every step Sophie took, she felt more terrible--as if something horrible was just about to happen. It was almost enough to turn around and head back to the hat shop...but her mother would already be out in the streets by now, and would be awfully worried if Sophie were not at the bakery.

Sighing in resignation and telling herself she was being foolish, she forced the gloomy feelings out of her mind and plodded onward, almost to the bakery.

She had almost managed to forget the gloomy feeling, when a tremendous crash echoed through the night sky, causing her to scream in something similar to terror, and likely leap a spectacular height as she spun to face the noise.

The crash, which perhaps had been an explosion, had come from the massive dark object looming a short distance from the town. No one knew quite what the imposing figure was, only that it had the shape of a twisted sort of castle, for any who would chase after it, or search in the daylight, would find nothing. Those who would lie in wait for it to return in the night would be sorely disappointed when they discovered it would only occassionally appear.

For lack of a better title, the townsfolk often referred to it as the phantom or ghost castle--a remnant of an old war from long generations ago, returned to its old home to reclaim its kingdom in some vague way. Some believed it to be living, or full of ghosts, others believed a terrible sorceror lived hidden within it, and made schemes to conquer the world on cool summer evenings. Others even claimed it to be a vampire--or all of the above.

Whatever housed itself in the dark building, it was widely known that if one was interested in their personal welfare, they ought to avoid it as widely as possible. Thus, one could not really blame Sophie for leaping a few steps away from the source of the noise, when she realized the terrifying castle now sat on the very edge of town.

Most of the townsfolk near her mimicked her movements in various states of panic, unfortunately for Sophie, the one person in the crowd who was unaffected by the sudden presence of the phantom castle had been crossing her path in just that moment, and Sophie's panic nearly sent them both sprawling to the ground.

"Watch what you are doing, you stupid child!" The harsh and somewhat harrassed-sounding voice of the woman Sophie had collided with, chastised her.

"I-I apologize, Miss." She said quickly, feeling dreadful for acting so foolishly over what was little more than a rumor.

"You could have ruined my dress!" The woman continued, unfazed by her apology. Blue eyes shone with indignation and offense, and a shock of red hair coiled in a tight bun over lavish furs and stunningly bright silk. Sophie had never seen this woman before, but it was not uncommon to have foreign visitors during festivals such as this. "It's bad enough this crowd damaged my carriage, but now you try to destroy my favorite dress!"

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't--"

"If I were not so dreadfuly late for an appointment, I would teach you a lesson in paying attention!" She snapped, still apparently oblivious to the fact that the girl Sophie had a voice. She frowned sourly, and adjusted her dress slighty--although Sophie had seen nothing wrong with it. "As it is, I suppose it will just have to wait for the next time we meet."

Sophie blinked in surprise, and opened her mouth to reply, but she could not find quite the appropriate words, before the woman vanished once more into the crowd with a final huff. She would have called after the woman, but she could not seem to pick her out in the crowd no matter how she searched, and another sudden crash from the looming darkness snapped her out of her absent-minded trance.

_Oh dear!_ She realized with a start. _Mother should almost be at the bakery now! I should hurry so I can meet her there!_

To her great relief, although the entirety of her journey was punctuated by erratic explosions from the nearby castle, no one else seemed to take notice of her existance, and she made it to the bakery quickly.

The inside of the building was no less crowded than the streets outside, rather, it was even more crowded. Men of all ages and marital status crowded around the counter, ordering countless pastries, and handing over unhealthy amounts of cash in the name of being served by her charming sister, Lettie.

She found it easier than she had thought to work her way up to the counter, and join Lettie on the other side of it. Perhaps it was because her mother had already just worked her way through?

"Sophie! It's so good to see you!" Her sister beamed, leading her carefully away to a backroom, where the disappointed milling of the crowd quieted to a muffled din.

She offered her a cozy looking seat, before sitting in her own, and leaning forward excitedly. "It's such a wonderful surprise to see you! Have you been keeping in contact with Martha?"

"Only a little, the hat shop has been busy." She said pleasantly, glancing around the room to see if her mother had already arrived and simply was remaining silent. The back 'room' she had considered it before, was really nothing more than a storage room...cakes and crates of supplies lined the walls, and the floor was littered with all different odds and ends. On the far wall was the large brick oven that they used to create their confections, and the odd storage-hand raced in and out of the room to resupply the rapidly emptying display cases out front. She did not see any sign of her mother.

"Oh no..." Her sister sighed. "Has Mother been working you too hard? Making you run the shop while she prances around town?"

Sophie frowned slightly. "No, not at all, she spends most of her day out front, selling the hats. I just make them...she's offered to switch places before, but I really prefer to make them."

Her sister frowned slightly and was about to make some sort of complaint, but Sophie quickly forstalled her by adding another comment. "She was the one who insisted we close up early today so that we could come and visit you."

"Really?" She asked, lovely dark eyes lighting up as they often did when she was pleasantly surprised. "So when will she be coming?"

Sophie frowned slightly. "I don't know. She should be here already."

Lettie chewed her bottom lip slightly, as if comtemplating something. "Well...she didn't arrive while I was out there--believe it or not I've gotten quite good at being able to tell when someone comes in, and who they are, even through the pandemonium out there...maybe she got held up with a customer?"

Sophie gave an involuntary shiver as a cold feeling passed through her, and the strange red-haired woman flickered through her mind momentarily. _Nonsense!_ She chided herself. _She said she had an appointment--what could she have wanted with a small town hat shop?_

"I'm sure she'll be along soon." Sophie nodded slightly. "The streets_are_ rather difficult to traverse at the moment."

Lettie nodded. "And from what I hear, the phantom castle's returned tonight, too...if I were her I'd probably just stay home tonight and visit tomorrow."

Sophie sighed. "Yes...I'm sure that's why she is so late."

"Don't worry about it." Lettie smiled. "A woman shouldn't be wandering those streets alone tonight anyway, it's just asking for trouble."

Sophie did not get a chance to reply before one of the store clerks burst in, eyes wide and face pale. "Lettie!"

The aforementioned woman jumped at the sudden intrusion, and turned toward the voice, a worried look on her face. "What is it?"

"Your family owns that hat shop near the edge of town, right?"

Sophie's stomach gave an uncomfortable flop, and once again the image of the indignant woman from the street rose unreasonably to her mind.

"What about it?" She asked, voice sounding incredably resigned and calm to her ears.

He glanced over at her a moment, and blinked in surprise, as if he just realized she was there, then turned back to Lettie. "Y-You and your sister have to come with me! Quickly!"

"What's wrong?" Lettie asked quickly, standing. Her voice was quickly losing it's carefree tone, and becoming thick with worry.

"I-It's...the shop--it's _GONE_!"

**CH END**

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AN: Ah, well. Was that a bit long? I wanted to get past the whole 'yes, this is linked to the book...see?' stage, and get to the real writing, before ending the first chapter. 

Hah...I'm not entirely sure how I'll do this, but I'll work it out. It's still my first HMC fic, but I tried to keep the characters mostly within their parameters...(and shall continue to do so...)

What do you think happened, and why, eh?

_-Yusagi_


End file.
